Watch as the birds swing and sway through the air.
they fly as though they have always done it.
they take their flight for granted.
they were born with it.
privileged with it.

But we butterflies start with nothing,
All day and night we dream of when we will take flight.
take to the sky at last.
It pokes at us, calls to us and with a little patience
Our dreams might just come true.

Through work and toil,
day by day
dream by dream
Finally I am free.

Watch as these wings take flight and carry me onward,
to a new dawn
a new day
A new dream

-The caterpillar with a dream

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

Turtle Shy
Have you ever seen the world through a peeping hole?
Everything is so small, it’s all a bit less scary from where I hide.
Inside this shell, that I am hiding from all that the world has.
It’s warm inside,
I do not want to leave, to come out
it’s safe and there is nothing to worry about,
the world is cold it is cruel and it is dangerous
what is there to miss?
I do not want to leave
I do not want to see
I do not want to feel
Just leave me be inside my shell
just let me be my own.

– The lies of a lonely Turtle

“All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.” — Tahereh Mafi

Trouble, trouble where did you go?
My problems have all fled.
Now I just wait
In the stillness in this ocean no rough waves to fight
I can’t feel the wind in my sail, I am sailing to a place called no where as I lay out on the boat.

As I sit
I think
as I ponder these thoughts
I devise a plan of action
to go forward
I will get myself to shore!
As I fill my lungs with air and stand to the sail,W O O S H

I finally began to sail
The scorching sun came back and I could feel it burn
The harsh wind returned to blow me around
The waves began crashing all around me

Trouble, Trouble there you are.

I have to mistakes to progress I need to have faults to move forward, My mistakes and errors are what keep me going,

Where am I? I look to my left I can see the mist off the waterfall rise to touch my arm, it’s cold but nice… and to my right a long way down to a green forest, Only now do I realize I am falling but very slowly.

Looking up I can see the sky is bright blue, no sun in sight but it is light outside…

“Odd” I thought to myself
“But then again what here isn’t odd?”

Then I felt my bare feet touch the soft ground, the lush, tall green grass moved with the wind and tickled my lower leg.

I feel as though the wind itself…is keeping me up, I want to fall down and rest, though I am not tired, But I can’t fall backwards…
“Where is gravity…Where is the sense of falling down.”
The sense we all know from birth, if you lose your balance you fall, and it hurts, but here i cannot fall i can’t even sit down…

“Where am I?” “what’s that sound”
I could hear something in the distance, far above me as if it were coming from above the sky, but the words were hidden and muffled.

wake up…..whoosh* plea- wak- p!

I felt the wind rush over me, blowing my hair into my eyes and catching my shirt in the wind, as it blew I felt as though i had no weight…
“Ahh”
My feet began to lift off the ground while the wind blew louder and harder, it was making me slowly rise up and up, higher and higher, I felt sad, I didn’t want to leave this place not so soon…

“please…no..let me stay”
“please…”

“Cephas! Your going to be late to work!” my mother said
But i couldn’t reply my thoughts were on that place. I wanted to go back there…
“Hey are you doing alright” she asked.
“Yeah, uh yeah just fine…” i replied without much thought
“Well hurry up and get ready, you need to leave” she said.
I replied with a blank stare and then forcing myself off the bed only to try and stumble towards my bathroom for a warm shower…but i stopped myself as my mother left the room, i looked back to my bed and part of the sheet was wet but only a small part…where my arm had been resting.
“That’s strange…in my dream I thought I had gotten some water on my arm from the mist…but that was a dream” I said to myself, I then reached for my right arm, and it was damp i checked my left but it was fine.
“Maybe I am just imaging these things…”
But still something bothered me. I couldn’t pinpoint it.
after getting out of the shower I headed downstairs, but to my surprise everyone had left the house already.
“Did they forget I was still here? Fine by me…”
I walked towards the kitchen to look around for breakfast items, of any kind after checking the fridge and finding out we had no milk I gave up and wanted to retire to my bedroom.
As I headed back towards the stairs, I stopped and looked outside…something was very strange.
“I don’t remember having a tree that big in the middle of the yard…”
This isn’t something someone just doesn’t know or see, it’s a tree in the middle of our backyard, that’s beside the point that the tree was at least as big as our house and possibly taller…
“How did that get there?”
I went outside to investigate further, I put my hand to the bark, it was smooth and soft the tree itself didn’t look rough it looked as though the bark had been smoothed down to a soft wood, this tree wasn’t straight like you think a tree would be, it wasn’t even standing up straight it was all bendy and curvy much like that of a long, thick river.
the Leaves were sea green and looked beautiful, and had a furry texture to them, one leaf was as large as my own hand.
I took the leaf into my hand and pulled, but it didn’t budge the branch didn’t even move.
I took a step back and felt the wind but now i noticed the leaves did not swing in the wind in fact they stood perfectly still.

“What…Is going on?”
the tree then moved and extended it’s branch as though it was it’s arm and grabbed my shoulder, and then through the wind i heard a loud noise…
Wake up!
“Huh!?!”
I jumped from the seat of the car and rustled around, surprised on where I was, or how on earth I got here….

“Cephas, were here, you need to stop falling asleep or you could lose your job.” Said mother.
“Sorry… i-it won’t happen again”
I hope.
My mom looked towards my dad with a look of concern, and then looked back to me.“Whats going on? Is this another dream…did I even wake up? Or am I still in bed, I need to pay attention to my surroundings, things are starting to get weird.” i thought to myself
I heard my brother from behind me say “Just you wait.”
“What?” But when I turned to the back seat no one was there.
I hopped out of the car and made my way inside…